The New NYT Poll Has More Good News For Barack Obama

The new New York Times/CBS poll
shows a big swing in President Barack Obama's
favor on what is still the most important issue of the 2012
presidential campaign: Voters now trust Obama
over Republican Mitt Romney on handling the economy
and unemployment.

The two issues are especially significant in this election — 41
percent of voters said either the economy or jobs/unemployment
would be the most important factor when voting in November.

For Obama, the swing from only a few weeks ago is incredible. In
a late August poll, voters preferred Romney by a 14-point
advantage — meaning Obama has swung the polls 18
points on the issues.

Among likely voters, too, he has shifted the numbers 15 points on
the economy. Forty-seven percent of likely voters prefer Obama to
handle the economy, compared with 46 percent that choose Romney.

Here are a few numbers in the polls that have helped contribute
to the swing:

Obama has a huge 19-point edge on which
candidate would "do more to help middle-class Americans." That's
up from an 8-point advantage in August.

Voters think Obama's policies will do more to help the middle
class, too. He has a 19-point edge, again, on whose policies
would favor the middle class. An astounding 55 percent think
Romney's policies would favor the rich.

Obama has also swung the race on taxes — by a 9-point margin,
voters trust him on taxes. That's a swing from a 5-point
disadvantage in July.

62 percent of voters believe Obama "understands the problems
of people like" them. That's around the level it was before the
2008 election. Comparatively, only 43 percent say the same of
Romney (though that number is up from 31 percent in February).

Finally, overall, people are viewing the economy at its best
point in years. A Gallup poll released Wednesday
showed that U.S. satisfaction with where the country
is headed hit its highest point (30 percent) since August 2009.
And the percentage of people who rate the economy as
"good" in this CNN poll is the highest it's
been since ... Obama's election in January 2008. Those numbers
aren't good, but they contribute to the upswing for Obama.

Some of the numbers still don't look great for the president,
however. For example, 45 percent still think the next generation
will be worse off, compared with 31 percent that think it will be
better. And 41 percent say his policies are not improving the
economy and "probably never will."